Daily Express, 31st January 2018
​by Cynthia D Baga

Borneo Post, 31st January 2018

Text by Chiew Lin May
Photos by Tee Thye Lim  & Chiew Lin May

Text by Nur Athirah Binti Asrif
Photos by Nur Athirah Binti Asrif, Seng Yen Wah & Chiew Lin May

Greetings!

Hi my name is Nur Athirah. I am 21 years old and am currently a final year undergraduate Zoology student from the University Malaysia Sarawak. I was born and raised in the nature city of Sandakan. I have known BSBCC since they started but never had the chance to pay a visit. In the past I have always aspired to be a volunteer to work with the bears but here I am finally, sharing you my own story!
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A little heads up; there will be tons of pictures of my days in BSBCC here. Well as the saying goes, A picture is worth a thousand words, so bear with it! :)

As a requirement for my studies, we have to undergo an industrial training for a period of 10 weeks.  I have zero hesitation upon applying BSBCC as my internship placement and am totally grateful to be accepted. I admit that I was one of the luckiest to have done my industrial training in this centre. For all the 69 working days, there was not a single day that I didn’t gain a new experience. It was truly a life changing journey which I believe I would not get from any other places. Each day in the centre has always been interesting and I will always look forward to what will come on the upcoming days.  It is a place that brings a more positive side of me as I was able to venture myself into more extraordinary and more challenging tasks and that is what makes my journey a memorable one. In a way, it acts like a rehab not only for the sunbears, but also for me. 

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​Sunbears are the smallest bears in the world and are one of the least known. It was devastating for me as a local to see how little do our own people know about these beautiful creatures. As I have the opportunity to get engaged with the public during educational outreach and also at the visitors centre, I realized that most of the locals have very little knowledge about the sunbears let alone the wildlife. But a huge thanks to our papa bear, Dr Wong Siew Te for all his hard work in which more of the sunbears that in danger are saved and more people are educated.

​Formerly, BSBCC has four main pillars which include welfare, rehabilitation, education and research. During my days in this centre, I have the opportunity to work with various departments which covers almost all the four pillars.
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First off is welfare, which are mainly all the work in the bear house. Our daily routine in the bear house is well organized as we follow the schedule provided. From feeding to husbandry, everything is neatly organized and is well timed. During my first few weeks working, it was a tough ride as it was a whole new experience. I have never cleaned (bear) cages before but during my first day I managed to clean five and I feel rather proud of myself.  As days passed, I feel accustomed to the routine and felt less lethargic during work. It was a tough ride but trust me, even with a small, unfit physical state like me, you be able to do things you have never imagined before as you try you’re very best.
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As a volunteer, you will be assigned to a bear keeper whom will be guiding you throughout your volunteer period. Here is a picture of me and my buddy keeper, Mr Brandon Khoo Lee Ming cutting fire hoses for our project, the Noah’s Ark. Every volunteer are also encourage making a new form of enrichment for the bears regardless of the materials. For me, I made a small bunk bed which kind of resembles a hammock for the bears to simply relax and play.
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​During my internship period, I was lucky enough to experience the whole procedure when a bear deceased and when a bear is rescued. I was able to do taxidermy on the deceased bear, Gutuk and also joined the team when the new rescued bear arrived, Soo.

Other than that, in the process of rehabilitation, I was given the opportunity to observe Noah and Nano from their fence training until the moment they are released into the forest enclosure. Observing this lovable duo had been a bittersweet memory.  It was a touching moment for me as I was lucky enough to witness the joy of the bears when they are released into the forest enclosure for the first time. Plus, I also wrote two story blogs about Nano and Noah which entitled “Cannot have the sweet without the bitter” and “A castle of wood, A playground for bears”.
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This centre enables you to work with every task available. Your tasks vary from sawing bamboos, collecting termite mounts to hand drilling ironwoods. Regardless that you are a small girl, you will get the chance to do all the tough duty. The bear care team will always be there for you and guide you with all the work. I never waste my chance and always ready to learn something new because; where else will you have a chance to improve your craftsmanship? 

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Also, cheers to my sidekicks, Chee Yong and Batrisyia which are also interns from Zoology,UNIMAS. We are the first intern students from UNIMAS to have done our industrial training in BSBCC and are said to be the best, haha (just kidding)! It was an amazing journey working with these people and I would never have all the fun things without them.
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​This centre had taught me a lot not only about the sunbears but about passion, determination, hardwork, teamwork, skills and so forth. Huge thanks to Dr Wong Siew Te for all the knowledge and the time he spends just to have a meeting session with his volunteers. A round of applause to the bear care team who make my days in BSBCC as one of the best moment of my life. Every day at work is filled with laughter and fun. The bear care team had taught me a lot and have gave me so many insight especially in teamwork. Every day the team do noble jobs wholeheartedly and it is what I aspire to do in the near future. It took a one whole amazing team to make a globally known conservation centre.
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Not to forget the educational team, for giving me a chance to visit three various schools around Sandakan. It was a wonderful opportunity to be able to educate our own people about the sunbears and the wildlife. 
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​Thank you so much for everything. I promise I’ll come back in the near future. Till then,

Love, Barks and Big Bear Hugs!

The world’s first symposium about the sun bear got underway in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday (Monday). Attendees shared information about the plight of the animal, which has been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and began developing a conservation action plan.


The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), which is also known as the honey bear, dog bear, or small bear, and the ours des cocotiers (coconut bear) in French, is present in 11 countries: mainly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, and Laos, but also in China.


David Garshelis from the IUCN’s bear specialist group told symposium attendees that there are possibly two sun bear species.


The sun bears on Borneo (Helarctos malayanus euryspilus) are different to those on the Asian mainland and Sumatra.


Sun bears can be distinguished by the white or yellowish patch on their chest. They feed on sweet fruits, small rodents, birds, termites, and other insects.


Populations are decreasing, mainly because of habitat destruction and fragmentation, commercial hunting, and human-bear conflict.


There is widespread snaring throughout the sun bear’s range.


In Malaysia and Indonesia, most of the forest clearing is for palm oil plantations and pulpwood.


With most public attention being paid to the keynote species such as the orangutan, the tiger, the elephant, and the rhino, the plight of the sun bear is rarely front-page news. The attendees at this week’s three-day symposium aim to raise the animal’s profile and spread awareness of the need to conserve the species.


Matt Hunt from the organisation Free the Bears, which was set up in Perth, Australia, and runs sun bear sanctuaries in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, said of the sun bear: “Compared to the other bears, it doesn’t really appear to have inspired anything like the level of cultural relevance or reverence that other bear species have across the globe.


“Even today the vast majority of visitors to Southeast Asia, and probably the vast majority of residents of Southeast Asia, don’t seem to realise that they are living in bear country.”


Gabriella Fredricksson, who founded a sun bear education centre in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, said: “The sun bear is not a high-profile species. There are a lot of other species that are considered more important.”


It is not widely known, for instance, that sun bears are excellent climbers and spend a considerable amount of time in trees.


One big problem, Garshelis says, is that there are not enough people researching in the field. “For other bears, there are more.”


For Hunt, a main challenge is how to increase awareness, but not end up encouraging illegal trade. Sun bears are sold on markets and via Facebook, Hunt says, and such trafficking is a growing threat.


Hunt cites one survey carried out in the Laotian capital Vientiane. A total 12 percent of those questioned said they had purchased wildlife in the previous 12 months and 28 percent said they wanted to purchase wildlife.


Heidi Quine from Animals Asia – which has offices in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Hong Kong, Vietnam and several countries in Europe –  talked to symposium attendees about bear bile farming, which is now illegal in Vietnam.


“Animals Asia has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding that means that the government will be in a position where they need to follow up and make sure that all bears that are in private residences are removed from farms by 2023 and they’ve committed to working with Animals Asia to make sure that that happens,” Quine told Changing Times.


In Vietnam, since 2005, all bears kept by farmers have had to be registered and microchipped, under the agreement that they wouldn’t be harvested for their bile.


“However, because of a lack of law enforcement by the authorities, and a lack of resources, there has been a loophole and we know that the bears are still being farmed; they are still being kept in these private residences,” Quine said.
“The MoU means that they are going to remove all of those bears from private residences, thereby collapsing that loophole.”


Bile farming is still going on in Vietnam, China, Korea, and Laos. There are thought to be about 1,000 bears, including Asiatic black bears, on farms in Vietnam. In China there are many more: an estimated 10,000 black and brown bears. Sun bears are much rarer.
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The founder and CEO of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Wong Siew Te (pictured below), also points to the need for more action to implement laws.
“Sun bears are protected across their range, but there is very little interest in law enforcement.”

Fredriksson told symposium attendees that, in 2008, percentages of the sun bear’s overall distribution range were 46.3 in Indonesia, 18.5 in Myanmar, and 15.4 in Malaysia. In Thailand, it used to be 13 percent, but now is 3.3 percent.
She said that four of the sun bear range countries were among those most responsible for deforestation: Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Laos. The land clearing was mostly for palm oil, she said. There was then trading in sun bears after the clearing.


Sun bear populations are decreasing in almost all range countries, Fredricksson told symposium attendees.


She said that, according to sun bear experts in each range country, the biggest future decrease will be in Vietnam (between 50 and 80 percent in the next thirty years).
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The overall prediction is a decrease of 39 percent in the future as compared with 42 percent in thirty years overlapping with the present and 30 percent for the past. If there is a 30 percent decline in any time window, a species is considered to be vulnerable.

Fredriksson (pictured left) says there are hundreds of sun bears in captivity in Indonesia.
She says close to one hundred of the animals are in orangutan rescue centres; a “byproduct” of orangutan confiscation.


“All of the centres are full. Nobody wants any sun bears anymore. The government is looking at solutions to deal with this without wanting to invest money into it as there is little public pressure on the government within Indonesia to start dealing properly with displaced wildlife.”


Since 2012, Fredriksson says, it has been legal for private organisations like those running petting zoos, to keep protected species like sun bears in captivity. This, she says, is a way of using sun bears that many would consider to be exploitation; and the conditions in which the bears are kept are often substandard.
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Nearly eighty licences have been given out to private “conservation organisations”, Fredriksson says.

Heidi Quine told symposium attendees about work being done in the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in the Tam Dao National Park, which covers eleven hectares and has a capacity for two hundred bears, including black bears. Eleven sun bears are currently being cared for at the centre. The bears arrive with a “suite of psychological and physical trauma”, which takes significant investment and time and patience to sort out, Quine says.


Quine also says there needs to be much more rescue centre capacity for sun bears.
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Robert Steinmetz talked about the sun bear’s possible resilience in the face of poaching pressures. He said that black bears tended to be poached more than sun bears. They had a more predictable behavior than sun bears and hunters could target them more easily.
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Garshelis (pictured left) says the sun bear is the bear most commonly raised as a pet.

The longest running Free the Bears programme is in Cambodia, where there are 125 sun bears in the sanctuary. All the Free the Bears sanctuaries are government owned.

Wong Siew Te says a major challenge is getting sun bears back to the forest. This is important, Wong says, not least because of the roles they play in the ecosystem. “Forest doctor and “forest farmer” are just two of the terms used to describe the bears.

One bear was released from the Bornean centre in 2006. Another was released in 2015, and another in 2016. The process is not easy, Wong says, and involves gaining knowledge about sun bears’ biology and life history.

“The bears that we release have to be able to find wild food, and one of the threats for the bears that live in the forest is other bears, so we have to wait until they are big enough to defend themselves before we release them.”

In rehabilitation, Wong says, bears need to be trained to climb trees.
“Finding a big chunk of forest that is free from hunting and poaching, and is not going to be cleared in the near future, is very difficult. All of this is extremely challenging.”
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Wong says that two sun bears were literally helicoptered in to the Tabin wildlife reserve in Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, so that they could be released in the middle of the forest.

Shahriar Caesar Rahman from the Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA) in Bangladesh says studies have indicated that there is no viable sun bear population in the country, but the CCA has been working with local tribal people to collect data and there are photos showing that the animals are still there.


Rahman says that, too often, wildlife conservative projects are implemented by outside organisations. “People who don’t know the area come and take a snapshot of the situation. They do not really see the whole picture.


“They often come up with one-size-fits-all projects that don’t work. There needs to be more of an exchange with local people. You learn from them, and you teach them something.”


In Bangladesh, Rahman says, habitat destruction is a bigger threat to the sun bears than hunting and, over the past 12 years, there has been a big increase in slash-and-burn clearance for rice cultivation. “We are trying to work on protecting habitat and reducing hunting pressure.”


The CCA has helped build schools in rural areas and is assisting local people so that they can develop alternative livelihoods that do not endanger wildlife or the environment.
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“The sun bear doesn’t need management; people do. Ultimately, if we want to save the sun bears of Bangladesh, it’s very simple; we just need to save the forest,” Rahman said.

Roshan Guharajan from the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota says that, in Sabah, sun bears are living in a landscape dominated by oil palm plantations.


“It is a remarkable species,” he said. “There is high hunting pressure, but, despite this, they have learned how to survive and have even managed to breed.”


The future survival of sun bears, Guharajan says, depends on how successful anti-poaching methods prove to be.


In Sarawak, the other state in Malaysian Borneo, sun bears are not fully protected.


Hunt says a main aim of the symposium is to produce a range-wide guide for sun bear conservation interventions over the next ten years. “Probably the next step will be to create national action plans.”


Free the Bears will take the range-wide guide to the Cambodian government to show the authorities what is being recommended for the species and hopes it will then be able to work with those authorities to create a national action plan.
“Realistically, our hope is that, within the next five years, we will be able to get national action plans drawn up in three range countries.”
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Hunt (pictured below) says sun bears are the Jack Russell terriers of the bear world. “What they lack in stature they certainly make up for in personality.”

​Warning: Some of the images in this article may be considered disturbing
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Bears! Most of us are used to seeing cute, fluffy soft toys or images of them gamboling along a riverbank in nature documentaries. But for many bears, the reality is starkly different.

Thousands of bears lie in constant pain and anguish in small cages as crude methods are used to extract their bile – metal catheters inserted into open, infected holes drilled into their bellies.

This is the description of the brutal bear bile industry that Jill Robinson, the founder of Animals Asia, gave Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

“They call them bear farms but they are more like bear torture camps,” said Dr Chris R. Shepherd, immediate past chief of wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic Southeast Asia.

“The bears are poorly treated. Some are confined to ‘crush cages’ so tight they can’t stand, sit or move,” he explained at a recent interview.
“Some bears show scars as they keep bashing their heads against the cage bars.”
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Others have the added misery of wearing “metal jackets” designed to restrain them and with sharp metal spikes to stop them bending their heads.

There is also often a permanent catheter running from the bear’s abdomen to a bile collection pouch.

Metal pins, hooks and other makeshift devices are often crudely inserted right into the gall bladder to hold the catheter in place.

This is often done in conditions ripe for infection so the bears are fed antibiotics to keep them alive.

“Some bears are put into cages as cubs and never released,” said Robinson.
And after 10, 20 or even 30 years of captivity, bears stop producing enough bile and are then killed and their body parts sold.

Some have badly worn teeth, with raw and exposed nerves, from trying to chew through the bars.

These bear concentration camps are found mostly in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos noted Dr Shepherd.
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Even Hong Kong movie stars such as Karen Mok and Jackie Chan have felt compelled to launch campaigns against bear bile farming.

Robinson said, “In Malaysia, there are no such farms, but wild sun bears are poached and killed and their gall bladders are removed for sale.”


Gloria Ganang, from the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, said poachers are even entering protected forest reserves to hunt for bears.

Heal not harmThe main driver of this horrific “industry” is the high value of bear bile in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
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But luckily, the cruelty can stop as there are many alternative medicines, as reiterated last week at a joint one-day conference by the Federation of Chinese Physicians and Medicine Dealers Associations of Malaysia and Traffic Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur.

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Federation president Ting Ka Hua said, “The purpose of traditional Chinese medicine is to save lives. But if you have to kill or torture animals to do that, then it defeats the purpose.


“Extraction of bear bile either kills bears or means horrible lives for bears in cages.”


He added, “Since there are over 50 substitutes for bear bile with similar healing powers, why don’t we use those instead?


“Our industry is different from others, it is to heal, not to harm. We are responsible for what we sell and use, and we urge everyone to stop using bear bile and medicine from endangered species.”


Kanitha Krishnasamy, acting regional director for Traffic Southeast Asia, said the organisation is very glad to be partnering with Malaysia’s largest TCM community to end illegal trade in wildlife.


Alex Choo, the federation’s secretary-general, said, “I was trained as a Chinese physician in Penang. We were not taught how to use bear bile in our text books.
“I believe Chinese physicians will not prescribe bear bile, though some shops may still sell it.”


He likens the campaign to move away from bear bile to the one on shark fin.
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“The younger generation will probably support it, but the mindset of older folks will be harder to change.”

Better alternatives

About 80 TCM practitioners, physicians and lecturers attended the conference.
This included Dr Feng Yibin, associate director at the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) School of Chinese Medicine.
According to him, the best alternative to bear bile is the herb huanglian, also known as berberis, Chinese goldthread, or by its Latin name Coptis chinensis.

During the conference, Dr Feng showed his scientific studies on the biogenetics, phytochemical properties, protein/DNA analysis and bioactivity of the herb in cellular and animal studies.


He explained that huanglian can be used like bear bile in the traditional cures of “removing damp heat”, “purging fire”, and “detoxifying”.


His conclusion: huanglian is just as effective as bear bile, and sometimes even better, in treating liver disease and cancer, two of the main uses for bear bile.
The studies have been published in 25 international medical journals.


Dr Feng himself has seen improvements when patients with liver problems were treated with huanglian.


His team at HKU also investigated bile from cows and found that it has similar effects on liver inflammation and other diseases.

Dr Feng said that because bears are now endangered and bear bile is expensive, some people think that “if they pay more, it will be better”.


But being expensive is a doubled-edged sword as “some bear bile is fake or mixed with other substances”, he said.


What makes bear bile even less desirable is that it’s often extracted in backyard (often illegal) operations in unhygienic conditions.


The wounds where the catheters are poked into the bear are often infected and this can cause contamination of the bile (with bacteria or antibiotics).

“A bear can spend 30 years of its life in a cage in extreme pain every day while bile is extracted from its gall bladder,” said Dr Feng.

“It is our duty to use scientific research to find a substitute and stop this cruel practice.
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“We should modernise traditional Chinese medical knowledge with science. This not only benefits wildlife but also humans.”
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Shepherd concluded, “We don’t want to demonise the (TCM) industry. We want to work with them to improve it, and this is a huge step forward.”
When the buying stops, the abuse and killing will stop too.

​The sad facts and figures behind bear bile cruelty

Fact about the bear bile business from Traffic Southeast Asia and other sources:
> Malaysia is ranked at No.4 of 17 countries surveyed as a key source and consumer of bear parts and derivatives.


> All bear bile, whether local or imported, is illegal in Malaysia. But 175 of 365 traditional medicine shops (48%) in every state in Malaysia had bear bile openly for sale according to a survey by Traffic in 2012. Nobody has ever been punished for this.


> In Peninsular Malaysia, the sun bear has total protection under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, and anyone who hunts, keeps or trades it without a special permit can be punished with a fine up to RM100,000 or jail up to three years, or both.

> In addition, under the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008, someone possessing bear bile can be fined up to an aggregate of RM1mil, or up to seven years jail, or both.

> The trade in bear bile in China is worth about US$250mil (RM1bil) It’s even used as an ingredient in mundane stuff like shampoo and skin creams. Apart from animal cruelty, it may become a political issue (that embarrasses China), according to Hong Kong scientist Dr Feng Yibin.


> Seizures and raids by the Wildlife Department in Malaysia have been increasing. In August 2016, dozens of bear parts (teeth, claws, gall bladders, etc) were seized in raids in Peninsular Malaysia. In the same month in Sabah, two men were arrested for trying to sell bear parts. In October 2016, a man in Pahang was arrested for trying to sell a sun bear online.


> Sun bears are being hunted and killed in Sarawak and Sabah. Two sun bear carcasses were found disembowelled with both paws chopped off in the Kulamba Wildlife Reserve in eastern Sabah in 2015.


> In the Belum-Temengor forests of northern Perak, sun bears have been found (dead or still living) with limbs caught in snares.
Some are seen missing a limb, which would have probably been crushed in traps.

Text and Photo by Seng Yen Wah

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is listed Sun bear as Vulnerable status. Deforestation, poaching issue, pet trade are still happening out there and all this can eventually lead sun bear to extinction.
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There is always hope! So, Please save the Sun Bear before it is too late!!

Text by Chiew Lin May
Photos by Seng Yen Wah & Chiew Lin May

​He was surrendered by a villager and was found roaming alone at a villager’s orchard with his mother nowhere to be seen. Noah was handed-over to the Sabah Wildlife Department from Nabawan, a southern part of Sabah, and brought into the BSBCC on the 10th of October, 2016. We have named him “Noah”. We are unsure as to why he was found alone, he may have been abandoned, or his mother may have been killed by poachers. Noah was nervous, alert and timid at first sight during the arrival.

On the 10th of October 2016, Dr. Pakeeyaraj Nagalingam from the Wildlife Rescue Unit of Sabah Wildlife Department, performed a general health check. This included an assessment of his overall health, potential sickness, function of the internal organs and physical condition. During the health check, it was found that Noah’s four milk canines had been crushed off. Because of their small and cuddly appearance, sun bears are used in illegal pet trade. This is common with captive sun bears to prevent them from causing injuries and they are easy to handle. As a pet, he suffered from loneliness, rotting teeth, and malnutrition due to improper diet and care. Little Noah nearly lost everything – just because someone was greedy. 

Noah is responding well to treatment. He has been receiving a proper diet and has a big appetite which has increased his body weight. He absolutely loves milk, banana, papaya and honey which ends up being a mouthful! Noah spends hours trying his best to get every drop of delicious honey out of the enrichment logs. As soon as he smells the food, he will quickly descend to find it. He will get involved in various types of enrichment to strengthen his muscles and senses. He is mischievous and prefers wrestles with his care taker. He continues to be as playful as ever!!

One of the BSBCC's missions is to give rescued bears lifelong loving care. The bears are reintroduced to their natural habitat. A huge thanks to the Sabah Wildlife Department who rescued and bought Little Noah to BSBCC. We will provide the best care possible through the rehabilitation process, so someday he can return to the wild. After completing the quarantine phase, Noah will embark on his new life. Little Noah will follow a process of gradual adaptation in the forest till he becomes an independent wild bear, then he will get this unique chance to return to the forest home he was once stolen from. We will take all appropriate steps to ensure that Noah makes a smooth transition into life as a wild sun bear. 

We are confident that he will continue to practice the skills needed to survive as a wild sun bear in the future. Noah will spend his days learning new and vital skills in the forest canopy. We cannot wait for the day when Noah is roaming free back in the forest where he belongs.

Text and Photos by Seng Yen Wah

Every bear carries different baggage arriving to BSBCC. But they learn everything necessary from the beginning in the forest enclosure with their friends.

In nature, sun bear cubs stay with their mothers until they two to three years old. When people take cubs away from their mothers, they also take away their chance of learning the survival skills from their mothers as well. If people only keep them as a pet in a small cage, they can never learn what they need to survive in the wild. This is the reason why our integration program becomes so important for the bears.
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The best enrichment for a bear is another bear. When they spend their time with their friends, they can learn relevant skills from them. Besides that, socialization can help to reduce bears stereotypical behavior. The forest enclosure provides them with a natural environment and enough space where they can explore with lots of activities, such as foraging, digging, climbing and play fight with each other.

My name is Khushalinie Kalayarasu, people call me Khusha most of the time. It has definitely been a privilege to be given the opportunity to volunteer in the BSBCC. A remarkable experience it was and I have no regrets. In the hopes of becoming a veterinarian one day, this experience has indeed given me the knowledge and built up awareness in keeping the wildlife as safe and competent as possible for all animals to survive.

I certainly have to thank all the people that are working there. They have guided me through this journey with such compassion. I was mesmerized by their dedication towards the bears and it makes every second more worth than it already is. Seeing them show the same amount of dedication every single day has made my experience more memorable. They care so much about these bears and it leaves me felling in awe. Not only that being said, they were the same crew that has enlightened me with the knowledge about the sun bears behaviour and characteristics.
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I believe that we are truly lucky to have these sun bears being a part of our wildlife habitat and the thought of them being endangered is very devastating. It took me by complete shock when I heard about how people would capture and keep sun bears for their own benefit. Poaching and illegal hunting should be taken under serious consideration as these wildlife animals are losing their habitat due to human being’s selfishness. These bears are one of a kind and should be cherished, not tortured. 

These past two weeks has been an experience to never forget. Being a part of such a welcoming team and helping the bears to heal and grow in their natural habitat the best way possible was indeed the cherry on top of this experience. I would be part of their enrichment making process in order to challenge the bears hence preparing food for them. It is definitely physically challenging but I believe that this experience is truly worth it. Gaining the knowledge about sun bears have opened my eyes to the importance of the wildlife community. 

Given a second opportunity, I would embrace this amazing experience once again and share it with the world. Knowing sun bears are a vulnerable species, they deserved to be loved and taken care of. I really do hope that all of us can give back what has been taken from Mother Nature. The freedom of animals, the majestic forest and the love of an unborn bear. Said threatened sun bears should be loved equally as any other animals. This experience does more than opening my eyes to the actual world.
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Once again, I would just like to thank everyone that had stood by me throughout this journey. Thank you for the opportunity, knowledge and accepting me with open arms.
 
Yours truly,
Khusha


Big Bear Hugs xx